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March 30, 2016

After a week's vacation spent at the Gulf I'm convinced I belong in the tropics!

It's no joke that even with the worst cold I've had in 3 years, the salty air and hot sun were able to transform misery into... paradise. Lush greens, turquoise blues, cool floury sand and the fiery heat of the sun all played a part. And those twisting, knowing vines and roots on every pointy cactus and palm frond were enough inspiration for a whole new series of paintings.

So much inspiration and good living makes a week away from the studio just about worth it! Sources say the name Palmeri means pilgrim or palm depending on where you look. I'm going with the palm definition. It reminds me of my house growing up that was filled to the brim with plants: ferns, ficus trees, marginata, philodendron, begonias, and of course the giant palm that prominently appeared in the background of every important family photograph.

Although I'd like to plan ten more trips like this, clearly that's not about to happen. Here's what will be happening though: when we move into our new house, our new sun room will be filled with all things tropical, not least of all a giant palm tree.

March 2, 2016

When it comes to looking at other people's artwork or curating or planning a show I think I am a fairly decisive person. I usually know what I'm looking for and know it when I see it, or don't, right away.

When it comes to almost everything else, and particularly that infinite realm of self-knowledge and critique, I am just the opposite.

I don't see clearly what everyone else is seeing and I can't make up my mind. I want so many things at once I can't decide which to put forward and which to push back, so much like the foreground/background issues that are currently plaguing me in the studio.

Thankfully, it's a good thing that unlike in the real world where self restraint and stoicism are necessary servants to an amiable life in society, in the painting world there is much more leniency in the letting-it-all-hang-out, I-want-everything-at-once department.

However tempted I am to put every single idea, mood, desire, color and line into every single canvas, I try to accept that it's virtually impossible and it will surely defeat my purpose.

And then just as I've accepted it, out of nowhere a painting will resolve to make this happen.

Not completely of course. No one painting can encompass everything you want. But when you've been working on a specific set of ideas, shapes and colors for a long while and you suddenly see even a few of those elements come together and give you what you want, it is wonderful!

It is so satisfying it keeps you going, until against all odds, it happens again.

"It is six A.M., and I am working. I am absent-minded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc...The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written... I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive."Excerpt from Mary Oliver's essay Of Power And Time